Vox Sentences - Justice for Ahmaud?

The trial for the killing of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery begins; Russia ends NATO mission in retaliation for expulsion of its staff. 

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Trial begins for killing of Ahmaud Arbery

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

• The trial of three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia last year begins this week with jury selection — a process that is expected to take weeks given the high-profile nature of the case. [Guardian / Richard Luscombe]
• Gregory McMichael, a retired police officer; his son, Travis McMichael; and their neighbor, William Bryan, are accused of chasing down and killing Arbery as he jogged through their Brunswick-area Georgia neighborhood in February 2020. A viral cell phone recording released months later captured much of the incident and will likely play a key role in the trial. [NBC / Bill Hutchinson]
• The three men pleaded not guilty to charges including murder and aggravated assault, claiming they were performing a citizen’s arrest after they spotted Arbery burglarizing a construction site. Arbery was reportedly briefly present at the site, but no evidence of a burglary there has been found. [BBC]
• So far it’s been difficult to find jurors who have not seen the video, heard about the case, or have strong feelings about what happened: attorneys plan to call 1,000 potential jurors in the next two weeks; just 16, including four alternates, will make the cut. [CNN / Eric Levenson, Dakin Andone and Angela Barajas]
• Amid pressure from civil rights groups, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp repealed a law dating back to the Civil War that allows citizens' arrests; the jury may determine if the defunct law was relevant in Arbery’s case. [MSNBC / Ja’han Jones]

Russia ends NATO mission in retaliation for expulsion of its staff

• Russia ended its diplomatic mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), a mutual defense organization for Western governments including the US, after its officials were expelled last month for spying. [New York Times / Andrew E. Kramer]
• The Kremlin’s decision — which also includes shuttering NATO’s operations in Moscow — comes after the Western alliance dismissed eight Russian staff from its headquarters in Brussels for acting as undeclared intelligence officers, and reduced numbers for the Russian delegation in early October. [Washington Post / Isabelle Khurshudyan and Reis Thebault]
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said NATO’s “baseless allegations” meant the organization “isn’t interested in any kind of equal dialogue or joint work.” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the group is still "open to dialogue.” [AP / Jim Heintz]
• The chilly relationship between Russia and NATO, with roots in the Cold War, has been strained for years. In 2014, NATO suspended military and civilian cooperation with Russia after the country annexed Crimea; in 2018, NATO reduced the number of Russian mission staff in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent. [CNN / Anna Chernova and Kara Fox]

Facebook will pay up to $14.25 million to settle claims brought by the US government that the company engaged in discriminatory employment practices that hurt eligible applicants and violated federal law. [The Hill / Rebecca Klar]

• College students nationwide are struggling with mental health during the pandemic. [Susan Svrluga and Nick Anderson]
• An Israeli scuba diver found a 900-year-old sword on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea that likely dates back to the Crusades. [NPR / Rachel Treisman]
• The Australian Open says unvaccinated players will not be allowed, meaning defending Novak Djokovic, who is refusing to disclose his vaccination status, might miss the tournament. [Daily Beast / Jamie Ross]

“He shot a man who had been running through his neighborhood who didn’t appear to have done anything wrong. What would I call that? I guess I would call it murder.”

A prospective juror responds when asked about Travis McMichael, one of the men accused of shooting Ahmaud Arbery [AJC]

Sean Illing talks with writer and New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul about her book 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet and the ways, big and small, that the internet has changed our lives. [Spotify]

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